More BoxLayout alignment issues

Question

Hi everybody,
I'm trying to create a bar graph with BoxLayout, but I'm having a problem. The BoxLayout always orients the buttons in a line on the exact center of the panel, which can result in a lot of extra space. I'd like to have the line be off-center if possible, with the panel bounded by the largest positive/negative bars. I can't figure out how to do that, unfortunately. Also, some of the buttons seem to be cut off when pack() is called; that might be related to this, but I'm not sure.
Here's a SSCCE of my problem, it can probabaly explain better than I can:
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
public class BoxLayoutTest {
     public BoxLayoutTest() {
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          BoxLayout layout = new BoxLayout( panel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS );
          panel.setLayout( layout );
          for( int i = 0; i < 9; i++ ) {
               JButton button = new JButton();
               Dimension size;
               if( i % 2 == 0 ) {
                    size = new Dimension( 30, 20 * (i+1) );
                    button.setAlignmentY( JButton.TOP_ALIGNMENT );
               else {
                    size = new Dimension( 30, 30 );
                    button.setAlignmentY( JButton.BOTTOM_ALIGNMENT );
               button.setPreferredSize( size );
               button.setMaximumSize( size );
               panel.add( button );
          JFrame frame = new JFrame();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
          frame.add( panel );
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible( true );
     public static void main( String args[] ) { new BoxLayoutTest(); }
}If anyone could help me out with this, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks,
Jezzica85

Answer 1

import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.*;
public class BoxLayoutTest2 {
     public BoxLayoutTest2() {
          //  Easier way to use BoxLayout
          Box panel = Box.createHorizontalBox();
//          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
//          BoxLayout layout = new BoxLayout( panel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS );
//          panel.setLayout( layout );
          for( int i = 0; i < 9; i++ ) {
               JButton button = new JButton();
               Dimension size;
               if( i % 2 == 0 ) {
                    size = new Dimension( 30, 20 * (i+1) );
                    button.setAlignmentY( JButton.TOP_ALIGNMENT );
               else {
                    size = new Dimension( 30, 30 );
                    button.setAlignmentY( JButton.BOTTOM_ALIGNMENT );
               button.setPreferredSize( size );
               button.setMaximumSize( size );
               button.setMinimumSize( size );  // this was the key
               panel.add( button );
          //  Used to distribute extra vertical space equally
          Box vertical = Box.createVerticalBox();
          vertical.add( Box.createVerticalGlue() );
          vertical.add( panel );
          vertical.add( Box.createVerticalGlue() );
          JFrame frame = new JFrame();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
//          frame.add( panel );
          frame.add( vertical ); // added
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible( true );
     public static void main( String args[] ) { new BoxLayoutTest2(); }
}